WASHINGTON — Legislation was introduced Thursday that, if passed, would provide a way for farmworkers to obtain legal status and, eventually, citizenship in the United States.

The bill, called the Agricultural Worker Program Act, was introduced by Reps. Jimmy Panetta and Zoe Lofgren, along with Senator Dianne Feinstein.

The proposed legislation would grant farmworkers “blue card” status and allow them to continue working legally in the United States, provided they have worked at least 100 days in agriculture in the past two years. Farmworkers who maintain their “blue card” status for either three or five years, depending on the number of hours they’ve worked in agriculture, would be eligible to apply for a green card. Green card status would grant them permanent, legal residence in the United States.

“With this legislation, farmworkers will be able to improve their wages and working conditions, resulting in a more stable farm labor force and greater food safety and security to the benefit of American employers, workers, and consumers,” Lofgren said in a statement.

The agriculture industry is worth $47 billion in California. However, researchers at UC Davis have estimated that nearly 60 percent of the farmworkers in California are undocumented, about 253,000 men and women out of a total of 421,000 farmworkers.

“California’s agriculture economy relies on immigrant laborers, many of whom are undocumented and work for hours every day in harsh conditions to help put food on the tables of the American people,” Senator Kamala Harris said in the press release.

All undocumented farmworkers are considered priorities for deportation according to immigration enforcement guidelines under the Trump administration. President Trump broadened these enforcement guidelines in an executive order on Jan. 25, 2017.

“By protecting farmworkers from deportation, our bill would ensure that hardworking immigrants don’t live in fear and that California’s agriculture industry has the workforce it needs to succeed,” Feinstein said in a statement.

Immigrant farmworkers “plant and harvest the food that goes on our dinner tables and enrich the social, cultural, and historical fabric of our society. This bill provides these men and women with a way to earn their citizenship by contributing to our agriculture and our communities,” Panetta said in the press release.

The Senate bill is cosponsored by 12 senators. The House bill is cosponsored by 59 representatives. The United Farm Workers, United Farmworker Foundation and Farmworker Justice also support the Agricultural Worker Program Act.